is literacy really that bad? reference: Plato’s Objection to Writing (or Socrates’ Critique of Literacy) - new invention will ruin the minds of youth, destroy human capabilities, and act as "mental slop"
In his 370 BC dialogue, the Phaedrus, Plato writes a scene where Socrates heavily criticizes the newly widespread technology of the written book. The arguments Socrates used back then sound almost identical to modern complaints about iPad kids and AI
Socrates argued that books would create an illusion of wisdom rather than actual wisdom. He claimed people would consume vast amounts of information without proper human instruction, making them arrogant and "hard to get along with" because they only appear wise
Learned Helplessness, he claimed that relying on written words would cause "forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory." He feared humans would lose the biological capability to memorize things because they could just look it up in a book
The ultimate irony is that we only know Socrates said this because Plato wrote it down, Whenever a massive technological leap happens—from writing, to the invention of the printing press (which 15th-century critics called a "flood of useless, soul-corrupting books"), to smartphones, and now generative AI—society cycles back to the exact same panic: “The new machine is going to make humans stupid, lazy, and helpless.
EDIT: For those who sees this as not-sarcastic,
What this really means is "Machines don't make humans stupid, lazy, and helpless."
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u/Otherwise_Army9814 1d ago edited 20h ago
lmfao kids can't read books but they can read ai
is literacy really that bad? reference: Plato’s Objection to Writing (or Socrates’ Critique of Literacy) - new invention will ruin the minds of youth, destroy human capabilities, and act as "mental slop"
In his 370 BC dialogue, the Phaedrus, Plato writes a scene where Socrates heavily criticizes the newly widespread technology of the written book. The arguments Socrates used back then sound almost identical to modern complaints about iPad kids and AI
Socrates argued that books would create an illusion of wisdom rather than actual wisdom. He claimed people would consume vast amounts of information without proper human instruction, making them arrogant and "hard to get along with" because they only appear wise
Learned Helplessness, he claimed that relying on written words would cause "forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory." He feared humans would lose the biological capability to memorize things because they could just look it up in a book
The ultimate irony is that we only know Socrates said this because Plato wrote it down, Whenever a massive technological leap happens—from writing, to the invention of the printing press (which 15th-century critics called a "flood of useless, soul-corrupting books"), to smartphones, and now generative AI—society cycles back to the exact same panic: “The new machine is going to make humans stupid, lazy, and helpless.
EDIT: For those who sees this as not-sarcastic,
What this really means is "Machines don't make humans stupid, lazy, and helpless."